WhatsApp CEO speaks about security and business plans in India

If we want to understand the amount of money WhatsApp makes, we might fail to get the right answer. But yes, WhatsApp has a fantastic potential and it will be a significant amount of money in future. WhatsApp Status was redesigned last year to introduce images, videos, and GIFs in addition to textual posts. WhatsApp Status was redesigned last year to introduce images, videos, and GIFs in addition to textual posts, like Instagram Stories, which itself is ‘inspired’ from Snapchat Stories feature. Instagram injects advertisements in Stories when a user plays many Stories consecutively – WhatsApp is likely to follow the same pattern for advertisements.

"We want to keep WhatsApp the way it was built to be - a place for private conversations," said Chris Daniels, CEO - WhatsApp.
 

In a recent visit to India, Chris Daniels confirmed that WhatsApp Status will indeed serve advertisements to the users worldwide. The visit of Daniels to India was a part of the company’s plan of action to educate Indians on curbing the spread of fake news and misinformation. Daniels said that the company had already held discussions with Indian law enforcement officials this summer on ways to source the limited information that WhatsApp collects for solving and preventing crimes.

Daniels said, "Privacy and security are true hallmarks of our product, and we have no plans to change these safeguards." According to him, fighting misinformation is a "societal challenge" that requires action from technology companies, civil society, government and the users alike. "It's important to understand that WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted and we do not know - and therefore cannot provide - the content or the originator of private messages."

Further Daniels said, “it is going to be primary monetisation mode for the company as well as an opportunity for businesses to reach people on WhatsApp.” However, he did not provide any specific timelines as to when the advertisements will finally arrive on WhatsApp. Secondly, the company is "working with the Digital Empowerment Foundation to conduct digital literacy trainings across 15 states" and has launched large-scale public education campaigns with tips on how to spot false news.

Daniels spoke about the company’s plans for monetisation after key people who left Facebook recently began justifying their exit on common ground. Brian Acton, one of the co-founders of WhatsApp, told Forbes that Mark Zuckerberg always wanted to make money from the app, which in turn would have undermined the end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp. “Targeted advertising is what makes me unhappy,” Acton said in the interview.